The Fall of the Queen
by Urimizo
Summary: As Bubblegum's tyranny cripples the Candy Kingdom, the one boy who helped caused it all seeks to stop her reign. Oneshot.


After infiltrating the castle of the now Queen Bubblegum with the help of Jake and Lady Rainicorn, Finn crept along the darkened hallways upwards into the main hall overlooking the once prosperous Candy Kingdom. There, he confronted Bubblegum's personal peppermint butler and bodyguard. After a brief struggle, Finn broke off a chunk of his candy head with his sword and chucked his corpse off the balcony, where he smashed into the ground below. An easy fight. Looking out, he saw the tallest tower's light dimly lit, indicating his final target's location.

Kicking open the door into the Queen's room, he saw the pink monarch gazing out the window at her city now shaken by corruption and vileness, all she had tricked Finn into committing for her over the years. Oh, how a fool he felt not seeing her evil intentions before. But what was done had been done, it was time to finish this.

"How nice of you to join me on such a pleasant night Finn. Do you see how the full moon seems to be just right out of your reach?" Queen Bubblegum nonchalantly asked the adventurer, reaching out the window towards the bright star. He felt his jaw tighten and his fingers grip around the sword on his back. "You shut your mouth you beast. You used me, the people of this kingdom, and for what? Power? Money? Do you think ANY of that will mean anything after all of this?" Finn cried. Bubblegum smiled and turned to the boy. "I don't think you understand, Finn. I have the power, I have the control. I can do anything I want. And do you know why I can do anything I want? Its because I'm the QUEEN!"

Finn stared at her in awe. "I can't believe this. All those people, all those dreams you've crushed, all those people you've stabbed in the back. All those people you killed-" "All those people I had _you _kill Finn." The Queen pointed out. The adventurer glared at her with a burning hatred. "All those people that posed a threat to me, and I had you dispatch them for me. I couldn't of done it without you, you do know that, right?" Finn's nostrils flared and he began to breathe heavily.

"You won't get away with this, I promise you that." He said through gritted teeth.

"Oh, a promise?" She cackled heartedly, then drew in a breath. "I don't think so."

At these words she pulled a sword from under her dress and stabbed at Finn's neck, he ducked underneath and unsheathed his own blade. "You've come prepared to kill me? Oh, and after all we've been through..." She taunted. Finn's eyes became even with hers. The battle began with the two sharing blow after blow between them. The sound of steel on steel echoed throughout the Queen's chamber and through the hallway. It was deadlocked when Finn saw an opening. He drove forward and stabbed through the girl's left shoulder, responding with a muffled groan and a trail of blood that quickly soaked through her pink gown. "You're getting slow." Finn chuckled "Maybe you're getting to old for this."

Queen Bubblegum's mouth contorted into an elegant scowl, if there ever was one. She punched Finn in the stomach, knocking the air out of him as she followed by kicking him down to the floor. The boy opened one eye to see the Queen, his once trusted ally perched over him, a blade in one hand, and a wounded shoulder covered by the other. Nothing but cruelty shown in her eyes.

"I should've done this when I had the chance. Die Finn!" She screeched, thrusting the sword down with every bit of strength she could muster. Finn saw the gleaming of her eyes reflecting off the blade, reminding him of what his foe once was. A kind, caring, and compassionate princess with a love for science. But now, looking at what she had become, this wretched spawn of twisted evil and greed that he had seen take over so many of the people he knew and loved, he wouldn't allow himself to be beaten. Gripping the sides of the blade with his hands, he stopped the sword from stabbing directly through his heart, but at the cost of slashing through the flesh of his hands. Trails of blood trickled down the boy's forearms as the two were at a deadlock for domination of the situation. The Queen's eyes widened with astonishment at the boy's sudden showing of resilience, but she was not swayed. She pushed down on the hilt of the blade with her chest, pushing her body's full weight more onto the sword, the tip began to poke Finn in the chest as his bloodied hands strained to keep it at bay.

Finn wouldn't admit it, but he could feel his strength depleting from his arms, and pain was starting to takes it's place. He wouldn't be able to hold his side of the fight for much longer at this point. In a last ditch effort, he swung his foot up and connected it to her groin, taking her completely by surprise. This moment was all that Finn needed. He shoved the blade aside and kicked her back against the stone wall. He could hear her gagging as she tried to collect air back into her lungs. The pain from his hands began to set in as he ground his teeth together in an effort to dull his nerves from screaming out. The Queen looked up at him with a look in her eyes that reflected that of a cornered wild animal. "Damn you Finn, damn you to hell!" She cried as she slammed a tile on the wall with her elbow. The tile pushed into the wall, spinning around a nearby bookcase that lead down a long, dark corridor. She made a break for the doorway, leaving Finn to watch as she made her escape, he wasn't able to do anything with his hands the way they were. He could see the Queen's figure striding down the dark hallway, fading until it was nothing but shadow.

Finn cursed himself, looking over at the bookcase as it began to close shut. He forbade himself from failing this mission. He refused to let her get away just like that, not like this. He clenched his jaw and ran for the sealing shelf, squeezing through right before it closed smoothly between the cobblestone wall.

Now he was left in darkness.

Finn could feel the pain his his hands surge as the blood kept flowing out of the open wounds in his palms. "I should wear gloves more often." He scolded himself. He took off his backpack and felt around for something in the darkness. He smiled to himself as he pulled out what he needed, a first aid kit. "A good adventurer is always prepared." He recited from memory as he remembered from his younger years. His hands searched inside the box's contents and pulled out what he could feel were some bandages. Only wincing slightly, the boy wrapped the cloth around his bloodied hands, sealing the wounds to the best of their use. "This will do for now, better than nothing." He said out loud to the pitch blackness. "At least until I can get back to Jake. Jake!" He wondered how him and Lady Rainicorn were faring. It was only by their strategy of flying in by night and holding back the guards was he able to make it this far. "I can't allow their efforts to go in vain. I just can't!" He yelled, hearing his voice vibrate off of the cold stone walls. Now with his wounds handled to, he dropped his supplies then and there and made his way down the dark hallway. He wasn't going to need anything else for what he knew was ahead.

After what seemed to be 10 minutes of making his way down the pitch black corridor, Finn could make out an eerie light up ahead, only about 50 yards or so from what he could tell. He could hear the sounds of water, splashing and running water. He also made out the sounds of someone murmuring, Bubblegum murmuring. "Ugh, this wound isn't closing. I'm going to have to manage it later. Damn it!" She cursed out loud. Finn stood in his place deciding the best course of action. "Should I take her out now? No, I need answers from her, she can't go anywhere now." He peeked his head out into the open to see Bubblegum sitting over a basin of running water, pushing a damp piece of cloth over her exposed shoulder, stained satin with the blood from her wound. Her face was starting to show signs of stress and fatigue, something Finn wasn't used to seeing from the kind and fair-headed image she created. He chuckled as he stepped out of the dark hallway, catching the attention of the girl. "Well well well, look at the Queen of the Candy Kingdom now." Bubblegum scowled at him as she pulled up her sleeve, wrapping the cloth around her shoulder. The room was eerily quiet, with only the sounds of their light breathing being the only noises in the room.

"What was your plan? Did you think you'd get away with all of this?" Finn burst out suddenly, letting his frustration let loose. Bubblegum looked at the adventurer, calmly waiting for him to continue. "_ALL_ of those people! You lied, used, and manipulated all of this! You're no queen, you're a MONSTER!" That was what set off the candy monarch. "Oh-ho, Mr. Saint! If you've got the guts to say it, you might as well say it to my face!" The girl got up and marched toward Finn, staring him down until they were inches apart. She easily beat him in height, but he wasn't intimidated. "I want answers." Finn simply said.

"What would you possibly want to know?"

"Everything, the scheming, those people, why?" Bubblegum looked at the boy intriguingly. "Why? Alright then, go ahead, ask me anything, one of us isn't leaving here tonight anyway." She sat back down near the basin.

"First of all, the Duke of Nuts, I can understand you hating him, but why did you want him dead?" Finn thought back to the day she had him and Jake seize him from the Land of Nuts once again. They brought the Duke back to the Kingdom with no hassle from the nut ruler, but when he was brought forth in front of the Princess, she ordered him executed on the spot. The look of his son as the man said his last goodbye burned in the boy's mind since.

"He was a political rival, he would've become a threat to me some day so I dealt with it beforehand. And I never really liked him anyway, always emptying out my pudding pantry and whatnot." The monarch answered. Her face showed no signs of emotion, neither anger, nor remorse.

"The Ice King, you sent me and Jake to convince him to give up trying to steal princesses. So you had us bring him here, and you had me poison the meal you served him. I knew he was a threat, but...but we almost had him on our side!" Finn could see the hopeful smile of his once known enemy. Him and Jake had him laughing, talking, he almost convinced the frost wizard to join their side and help them on adventures. But then the King's eyes bulged out, his blue skin faded to an even deeper shade of blue. And then, he collapsed on the table, no longer breathing. Finn had slipped a tasteless and highly potent toxin into the King's food, as ordered by the Princess.

"The Ice King was a stubborn pest. His powers combined with his insatiable want for stealing princesses, it was only a matter of time before he snapped and attacked the kingdom." Again, her expression didn't change. Finn swallowed hard.

"Those three candy villagers. You created this insane theory that someone was plotting to overthrow the kingdom. you burst into this one family's house, drag them away, in the middle of the night, and then you hold a public hanging of them the next day. And all for what?"

"As ruler, you need to set an example for fellow subjects to follow. Those three began publishing slandering statements about my rule in the newspapers. So, I had to but no choice to stop them. Of course, it didn't go all as planned, seemed one of my men dropped something of his while planting evidence that caused quite an uproar afterwards. Oh well, he'll get out of jail in 20 years tops." A bead of sweat ran down from Finn's hair and soaked into his white hat. He felt his own nerves begin to tighten.

"The Marauders, they kept to themselves well enough in that valley. Some of them had never even heard of the Candy Kingdom. You sent an army, AN ARMY of candy knights to slaughter the village. Why?" Finn's voice rose to a pitch at the end of his question, the picture of the roughhousing men being torn apart by candy knights on horseback and cannon-fire had come back after all these years. He could've warned them, he could've prevented it, but he believed in Bubblegum's ambitions. No, he didn't believe in her, he loved her. He would've done anything to make her happy, and he did.

"Men like that are easy to sway to fight for your cause. A toss of a few coins and they fight for whatever you tell them to. What if someone were to pay them to attack the kingdom? A group like that would've plowed right through the gates and pillage the citizens. It was by my word that all of that was prevented." This time, her answer felt different to the adventurer, she was lying. She didn't care for the people, if anything, she only wanted to prove what she was capable of. And what better way was to kill an entire village of people? Finn's jaw tightened to the point where his teeth began to ache.

"...Those experiments you held in secret with the Cloud Kingdom. The ones where you worked on warping a Candy's DNA. What were you doing there?"

The Pink Monarch seemed somewhat surprised by this question, but she kept her prim and proper stature. "If you have to know, I was _helping _my fellow Candy Citizens by creating a way to make them immune to fear." Finn's eyebrows raised and his eyes beamed at this. "You know how they explode whenever they get a little frightened? Well, I figured it was their genetics making them incapable of handling stressful or confusing situations. So, I had some scientists arrange some experiments to put an end to that."

"And let me guess, you used live candy test subjects for these..._experiments? _Finn questioned sharply. Bubblegum grew a sinister looking smile.

"For the good of the Kingdom, I did what I had to do." Finn glared in disgust at the Queen as his next words came out bitterly.

"And Marceline? She was your friend too. Was it just because she was a vampire?" Bubblegum's smile only wavered slightly.

"Oh Marcy...she was one of the few I had hoped to keep. But her army of the undead was too much of a threat to the Kingdom. And you just can't really trust those with an entire army at their disposal. Its such a good thing I had someone she fully trusted to do the job!" She exclaimed giddily looking at Finn. The boy was about to respond with something, but then thought about it and smirked.

"I hate to break it to ya, but she's still alive." The candy queen seemed to take a second to register this before her eyes widened in surprise and shock.

"You told me you killed her!" She yelled. "You brought me her hand to prove it! I examined it, it was the real thing!" Finn kept his smile.

"You don't need to kill someone if you just ask them to cut off their own hand. But she was still pretty mad knowing you wanted her taken care of." Finn had the advantage now, he just needed to seal the deal. "In fact, she's probably inside the castle right now, as we speak." Bubblegum's scowl returned to her face. Her nostrils flared with hatred once more, and that killer glare in her eyes was back.

"My men will do away with whatever she can do, undead army or not. I'll kill her myself if I have to." She got up and began to move away from the basin, and away from Finn.

"Oh no you're not. This ends here. Right here, right now." The adventurer declared. The monarch turned to look at the boy, a combination of astonishment and annoyance was expressed on her pink face.

"And what do you plan to back that up with? You've got no weapons on you." She replied, gesturing towards a stand behind her holding a variety of weapons at her disposal. Finn looked her dead in the eye.

"I've got these." He said cracking his knuckles with his palms, despite the blood spattered rags tied around them. The adventurer put himself into a fighting stance and his shoulders broadened. "No more weapons, no more running, no more cheap tricks. Just you and me." Bubblegum peered at the human quizingly. Then frowned subjectively.

"Fine then, if thats how its gonna be..." The Queen slipped off her pink silk gloves and walked over to the weapons rack. There, she replaced the elegant garbs with a pair of steel gauntlets with matching spikes on the end of the knuckles. "Wouldn't be fair challenging a girl to a fist fight if she didn't have some type of handicap now would it?" Finn's only response was cracking his neck. Seeing no uprise from the boy, the bubblegum monarch sighed. "Well then, before I wring your neck dry, I'd like you to answer a question for me."

"And what would her Majesty herself want to know?"

She ignored the boy's sarcastic remark. "How did you find out? I only talked with my most trusted advisors about anything related to the kingdom." Finn took a pause before answering. Without for this one's knowledge, he would've never have known any of this was happening.

"Rainicorn. She was the one who told us everything you were up to." Bubblegum closed her eyes for a brief moment, whether in thought or in shock was beyond Finn's knowledge, but she smiled once she reopened them.

"I had a feeling it was her. She always did have a thing for you and Jake. No matter though, I'll have her put down as soon as this mess is cleaned up." Finn stepped forward.

"I'll never give you the chance." The boy charged at the monarch, throwing a jab to her face. She ducked swiftly and swung her leg up and nailed him in the ribs. Recovering quickly, he dodged an elbow from the Queen and punched her square in the mouth. A small trimmer of blood trickled from the side of her mouth, but the fight commenced. Using her iron-clad gauntlets, the candy monarch clawed at Finn, slashing at his skin and clothing and creating four cat-like cuts on his face and chest. The pain was of no concern to the adventurer now. Dodging another swipe, he drove in and kneed the Queen in the gut, he could feel a gagging sound coming from the girl as she wrapped an arm around her abdomen. He felt confident and went in for another attack when the Queen caught his leg with her metal hands.

"You've been a nuisance for too long now!" She managed to throw the boy off balance and send him into a shelf, throwing the contents from the wooden stand to fall and shatter on the floor. Bubblegum got up and pinned Finn to the shelf, with her arm up underneath the boy's neck and the other holding his arm down. It wasn't until he began to struggle that Finn knew that she was trying to choke him, but with his current situation, he was in a losing battle.

And thats when it hit him. He noticed the satin stained part of Bubblegum's gown and, with his free hand, grabbed at it and gripped it tightly. Her eyes opened widely as her mind registered the sudden shock and she gasped out a breath of air. She pushed the full force behind her into the boy's neck as he squeezed even tighter, he could see fresh new blood soaking into her garment, but could also feel his vision growing hazy and his pulse hasten. The Queen bared her teeth as Finn continued to clutch her wound, all he needed was a moment of hesitance, just a second of let up, and he'd be free.

There.

Bubblegum shifted her shoulder just slightly enough to reduce Finn's reach of her it, but in doing so, let off enough pressure on the boy to allow him to throw her off and land an uppercut right below the chin. The pink monarch flew backwards and landed with a hard thud on the stone floor. The blonde boy held his neck to catch his breath and went over to the candy queen, who still lied on the dungeon floor, with the same twisted expression she wore from before. Glaring at him with those same eyes she used to kill her enemies, her friends, and even in trying to kill him.

"You think you'll get away with this? You can't kill me! I'm the Queen of the Candy Kingdom!" She spat, crawling backwards on the cobblestone. Finn slowly walked after her, there was no where she could go now. "They'll find you! The Candy Coalition, the Candy Guardians, they will ALL find you! They'll hunt you and your dog down! They will KILL you!" She pointed her metal finger threateningly at the boy, but he was unphased. He slapped the hand aside and stepped onto the Queen's stomach.

"Don't you remember? You got rid of the Guardians to be able to build up your army of secret police." he lowered his head slowly. "No one's here to save you." She struggled to knock him off, but to no avail. In retaliation, he stopped his foot into her abdomen, making her curl up and grab Finn by the ankle. Another cough and gag came out of the girl, and still Finn paid no heed. With the Queen curled up on her side, Finn cracked his neck, bent over the girl, and kicked her. More gasps and moans of pain were heard as the boy repeatedly kicked the candy monarch furiously, venting the anger he had held in for so long.

"You're finally going to get whats coming to you, you heartless witch." Finn spat sharply. He pushed Bubblegum onto her back with his foot, fancying the larger trail of blood dribbling from her mouth and nose and the bruise around her left eye. He pinned her shoulders down with both of his knees and wrapped his wounded hands around her pink neck and began to squeeze tightly. Bubblegum's body began to flail and thrash about, she glared at the boy who stared right back with no change of emotion. She shook her neck back and forth, but to no avail. Finn could start to feel her pulse quicken through his bandages, and her breath begin to quiver, whether out of fear or hate did not matter anymore. The candy monarch started to cough and gag for even the slightest breath of air, thrashing about even more than before to knock Finn away, but no relief came. The adventurer could start to make out her eyes beginning to droop, and her struggling began to cease, it was almost over.

But then, Finn saw something, something in Bubblegum's eyes that brought back a distant memory. A memory he thought lost long ago. It was the day he had first met the Princess, captured by the vile Ice King. It was he and Jake who had saved her along with the help of Lady Rainicorn. That day the two had become friends. And now, here he was, on the verge of killing his once called friend, kneeling atop her battered and beaten body, with his fingers gripped around her small throat, choking the life out of her. It wasn't him, it wasn't who he was. Finn realized he wasn't killing the Queen to protect the Kingdom, he was killing her out of hatred. He felt sick. Sick in the sense of losing who he was. This wasn't how he wanted it to end, not like this, not out of hatred.

"No." The boy simply murmured. He let go of the pink monarch's neck and got up. Bubblegum's eyes slowly opened as she gasped for air and began to heave heavily. He looked away from the girl, towards the darkened hallway from where he entered. The Queen sat up, clutching her neck tenderly and still continued to gasp for more air. He stared at the floor bitterly. "I'm not going to kill you like this. You deserve to die like everyone else, not out of hatred or revenge." Bubblegum's head rose and she looked at him bewilderingly. Her breathing had leveled and her vision returned to normal.

"You've...you've got to be kidding me. You have the one chance to kill me, and you throw it away! Just to be some kind of saint! I am going to **murder **you. I am going to slit your wrists and hang you up from the highest tower from your until vultures are picking at your skin! And after that, I'm going to torture that stupid mutt of yours until he's begging for your fate!" She swiped a broadsword from the weapons rack behind her and charged at Finn full sprint. The boy snapped around, knocked the sword away, and punched Bubblegum square in the jaw, falling back onto the cold stone. He walked over to the sword and picked it up, examining the blade and looked over at the pink queen.

"Queen Bubblegum, you've been found guilty of murder, treason, genocide, premeditated murder, and conspiracy against the Candy Kingdom. For that, I sentence you to death." He clenched the sword tightly in both hands, raising it over his head. He waited for a response, but she didn't say anything. She only look up at the sword rising above Finn's head, with the same indifferent face.

"May your life in the next realm serve you better than yours in the living. Goodbye Queen Bubblegum..."

He brought the blade down onto the pink ruler, stabbing her clean through the chest. Her eyes went wide for a moment, then faded into nothing. There was no noise, no resistance, no jerk of motion, nothing. The bloodied and now dead body of the once ruler of the Candy Kingdom was now at the feet of the one who helped cause it all.

"It-its over..." Finn gasped, "Its finally over." He breathed a heavy sigh and sat down onto the basin. Looking into the water, he saw his reflection. The image of a 12 year old boy was long forgotten over time, replaced with the much older version of his present self. He removed his hat and washed his face and hands in the basin, cleaning off the blood and dirt. He let the water run down his face and absorb into his tattered and worn out shirt. He wasn't sure what he was feeling, it wasn't remorse nor victorious. Sure, he killed the creator of all this misfortune, but _he_had let it all happen. He didn't see Bubblegum's true intentions, blinded by his need to impress her. He let his feelings get in the way of his hero's duty, his code of valor...

Suddenly, he heard noises coming from the hallway. A voice, that he could make out was heard soon following.

"No, I can smell him, he's right down here." The voice echoed against the cobblestone room, and without the need of sight, Finn called out to it.

"Jake!" Finn yelled out loud to the dark hallway. There was a pause, but he heard him call back soon afterwards. "Finn? You're alright!" He heard his friend yell. There was a rush of footsteps as his buddy came out of the shadows. "Aw man, I was worried sick about ya!" Jake's smiling face created a rise in relief in the adventure that he hadn't felt for much time.

"I was worried too...but...wheres Lady Rainicorn?" To Finn's relief, Jake's smile didn't go away. "She's guarding the entrance of the hallway, you're pretty lucky I was able to sniff you out man. From what we could tell, that was a one-way passageway."

"I'm just glad you and Rainicorn are here, safe and sound." Finn said. For the first time that night, he felt protected and secure. Knowing that his friends were alive helped reassure him and put his fears to rest. But then, there was a third voice that again came from the black hallway.

"He's not the only one thats here, Finn..." The adventurer didn't even need to think of who the voice belonged to this time. The hairs on the back of his neck standing up answered it for him.

"Marceline?" The vampire ruler stepped out of the dark, leaning against the corner of the corridor. Her eyes were half open and her usual spirited grin was gone.

"In the undead flesh." She retorted. He noticed she had a dark cowl over her head, despite it being long past midnight, where the moon was the only light shining into the room they were in. She threw a casting glance across the room and ended looking at the now defeated Queen. "So I guess you finished her off after all..." He voice trailed off as she walked over to the body. Examining the sword sticking out of her chest, her eyes fell on Bubblegum's face. Removing her cowl, she looked at the blood trail leaking out of her mouth. She swiped it up with one of her fingers and tasted it. "Its still warm. Seems we just missed the big fight." Jake looked over at the Vampire Queen and then back to his friend.

"Did...did you actually kill her? I mean, I know that was the plan and all, but-"

"I had to Jake. Like you said: 'It wasn't for the good of the Kingdom, it was for the good of everyone;" Finn quoted. He looked solemnly at his hands again, which Jake immediately noticed.

"Wait a minute..." Jake examined Finn's hands and looked back at Bubblegum's body. Making out what appeared to be bloody hand prints around her neck. "Finn...did you...?" The boy knew what his friend was about to say.

"I almost did, Jake, and I wanted to. The things she did, I couldn't forgive her or myself for causing them. She deserved to die, but...I saw something..."

"You had a vision?" Finn's eyes widened in astonishment.

"Wait, how did you know?"

"When you get as old as I am, you learn a lot about having to make tough calls everyday. And sometimes, the past comes back to help you make them." Finn smiled at his companion.

"It was back when we first met her, when she got captured by the Ice King and we helped out Lady Rainicorn in rescuing her." Jake thought back and chuckled.

"Heh. Yeah, I remember that."

"Just seeing that, remembering who she once was. I couldn't kill her like that, it...it just wasn't right. Fighting what she had become almost made me just like her, and I just couldn't..." The adventurer looked solemnly at the floor and held his head up with his cut hands. Jake went over and patted his friend on the shoulder.

"Hey now Finn, what she did, she could never be forgiven for. You didn't kill her out of revenge, you killed her to protect everyone from her harm. Thats not anything like Bubblegum. She had to die, but you didn't let her suffer, you didn't torture her. If she was in your shoes, she wouldn't have been so merciful. You'll never be like her because you don't fight evil out of hatred, you do what you do to protect everyone else."

Finn looked up and smiled warmly at his canine friend. He could feel tears well up in his eyes and start to fall down his cheeks.

"Thanks man, I needed that."

"Anytime Finn."

The conversation was cut short as they heard a menacing hissing sound coming from where Marceline was perched over Bubblegum's body.

"That may be great for you two boys, but I had more than just a bone to pick with this gal." She pulled up her cloak's sleeve to reveal the stump of what used to be her left hand, now cut off at the wrist.

"Because of this little wench, I have no hand now. I can't even play my bass now..." Her face shriveled up in disgust at the thought and she punched the Queen in the face with her stump of a hand. "Because of her, I've had to live in the mountains for the past five years just to avoid being found!" At these words, she fell silent. Her long, black hair hung over her head and fell on the still rosy cheeks of the candy queen. "And now...after all thats happened, I finally get to see her, and shes dead. Dammit...damn it all..." A sigh could be heard from the Vampire Queen as she held her head up with her good hand. "Why did it have to turn out like this? Why her?" She held up a strand of the candy ruler's pink, gooey hair and let it fall back into place. Jake looked back over to his friend.

"Well, what now Finn? You've taken it this far, now you have to finish it." The dog asked with a firm expression. Signaling more of curiosity than confusion. "The people will want some answers, some will want your head as well for killing her." Finn looked up at his canine friend and pondered over the matter. It didn't take long for him to find an answer.

"With Bubblegum dead, the Candy Guardians will come back. Once this happens, the Candy Coalition and Knights will be disbanded and tried against the Candy Council. Once the Guardians are back in power...its all up to them really. As Queen, Bubblegum had the power to order the removal of them from the Kingdom, but with her gone, I think they'll be in power until a new ruler is put into place. But for now, we need to tell the villagers whats happened, and why. They might not like it, but this wasn't for them, it was for the whole Land of Ooo. Bubblegum might've forgotten about them, but I'll be damned if I do." His voice rose with assurance and he stood up with his fist raised. Jake nodded in agreement.

"Right. Whats done is done. We have to work with what we've got now, theres no changing whats been done." Jake spoke from memory, patting Finn on the side reassuringly. "Lets get going, Lady Rainicorn is waiting for us."

"Yeah man." Finn replied, then looked back over to where Marceline still kneeled over the dead Queen. "Marceline, you coming?" Their eyes only matched briefly as she looked away from the pink monarch's expressionless face.

"I'll be right behind ya..." She heaved out a breath of air and cocked her head to the side, looking down again. "I gotta say something...ever since the whole thing with my hand, I've been wanting to suck out Bubblegum's blood..." The undead ruler spoke out loud to no one in particular. "But looking at her dead like this...I don't know, blood just doesn't taste right afterwards..." She paused as the gathered some of the red liquid leaking from the Queen's mouth with her finger and lapped at it with her tongue. "Its still warm enough though." The Vampire noticed Finn was still eying her. "Finn, you might not wanna be here for this. I'll be there in a bit..." The adventurer nodded in agreement, and, followed by Jake, started their trek back down the dark hallway. Whatever faced them at the end, they were prepared for it.

As the two warriors expected, the news of the Queen's demise breached the castle walls almost as quickly as it had happened. The unrest at the castle towers that night stirred some commotion inside the candy town as people wondered what was happening. But soon, the Candy Guardians returned, answering the fears many of the candy folk felt. Just like Finn had predicted, the Knights and Coalition were soon broken apart, tried, and punished for their crimes against the Candy Kingdom. Those that were directly affected by Bubblegum's reign were compensated for whatever they lost. With the monarch gone, the Candy Guardians were automatically put into power, as it once was before she came unto the throne. Many revered Finn as the savior of their Kingdom, while others called for his death. However, to the boy's advantage, the Guardians silenced these disputes quickly, announcing that the Queen's death was needed for the continuation of peace and prosperity among the Candy Kingdom and it's satellites. Using their magic, the sentient beings rebuilt the rundown shops and homes, cleaned up the filth that had gathered in the streets and alleyways from years of neglect, and repaired the castle walls and roads leading in and out of the Kingdom. All within a couple of days, from a distance, it looked as it did before all of it occurred. No diseases, no crime, no fear.

"Finn?"

"Yeah Jake?" The Adventurer looked back at his friend as he looked out of a glass-paned window inside the Castle. It had been two months since the death of Bubblegum, and activity in the Candy Kingdom seemed to have picked up now. Trade was coming back as businesses began to export and import more of their goods, and weary travelers were now able to stay and relax in the city's inns without fear of embargoes or toll collectors.

"Something's been itching at me for a couple of days now...ever since like, Bubblegum was killed and the Guardians were put into power: Shouldn't there be a replacement for the throne? I'm not saying like a Queen, but something like a Princess, or a _prince_." The magical dog egged on. Finn pondered over the thought and leaned his shoulder onto the window, seeing his reflection staring back at him.

"You saying I should be the new prince of the Candy Kingdom?" He asked.

"Well, not saying you, but, someone has to do it, right?" Jake seemed to be looking more for an answer instead of an actual response. Finn closed his eyes and chuckled softly.

"Nah man, that kind of stuff gets in the way of everything. With Bubblegum, it clouded her judgment so severely, she forgot who she actually was. And me? I'm an adventurer deep down, fighting evil and saving the innocent is what I live for." Jake smiled happily and got up from his cushion laid next to the empty golden throne Bubblegum and her many ancestors once sat upon, now alone and empty.

"Yeah dude, lets stay that way." Jake raised his fist toward his human companion, Finn smirked and responded right after, trading bumps with his best friend.

"Always."


End file.
